Age cheating as serious as doping, says IAAF

BAMBOUS, Mauritius, Aug 10 - Age cheating will be
treated with the same seriousness as doping, the head of the
world athletics governing body said on Thursday.

"We shall treat the matter with the same seriousness as
doping," Lamine Diack, president of the International
Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) told reporters in
Mauritius at the 15th African championships.

He was referring to recent cases of cheating by two Kenyans,
Thomas Longorisiwa and Emmanuel Chamer, who obtained passports
bearing fake ages with the intention of taking part in the World
Junior Championships in Beijing from Aug. 15-20.

Longorisiwa was arrested and charged while Chamer was let
off after owning up. Both athletes dropped out of the event.

Two other Kenyan-born athletes now representing Bahrain were
also arrested in June and briefly held before being released.

They allegedly changed their ages to participate in last
year's World Youth Championships in Morocco and junior races at
the 2005 World Cross Country Championships in France.

"This is an eyesore for our sport. We are gathering further
information and we shall certainly make a decision to suspend
the culprits after exhausting the process," Diack said.

"We need the full support of the government and the Kenyan
federation to curb this cheating. We will investigate the
athletes' managers and the Kenyan federation officials to get to
the bottom of this," he added.